Configurable indicator on computing device

ABSTRACT

A computing device may include a policy agent configured to receive activity information, apply at least one display policy to the activity information, and determine at least one command based on results of the at least one display policy being applied to the activity information, and a multi-colored indicator unit, located on a non-display screen area of the computing device, configured to display at least one of a plurality of colors based on the at least one command.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and is a Continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 13/660,833, filed Oct. 25, 2012, entitled“CONFIGURABLE INDICATOR ON COMPUTING DEVICE”, the disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Conventional computing devices such as laptops may have a light-emittingdiode (LED) indicator on the front/back of the device, which mayindicate an operating status such as on, sleep, and charge. This LEDindicator has a single color LED, and is driven by internal CPUcontrollers. However, the internal CPU controllers do not have thecapabilities of controlling the LED indicator in a configurable mannerin order to indicate many types of information besides the operatingstatus of a computer.

SUMMARY

The details of one or more implementations are set forth in theaccompa-nying drawings and the description below. Other features will beapparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

A computing device may include a policy agent configured to receiveactivity information, apply at least one display policy to the activityinformation, and determine at least one command based on results of theat least one display policy being applied to the activity information,and a multi-colored indicator unit, located on a non-display screen areaof the computing device, configured to display at least one of aplurality of colors based on the at least one command.

The at least one display policy may include at least one of anenterprise policy, an administrator policy, a user preference, and anapplication setting. The policy agent may be further configured todetermine which display policy to apply based on a hierarchical order ofa plurality of display policies.

According to one implementation, the computing device may be a laptopcomputer having a display screen portion, and the non-display screenarea may include a backside of the laptop computer opposite to thedisplay screen portion.

According to another implementation, the computing device may be adesktop computer having a display apparatus connected to a computerprocessing unit, the display apparatus may include a display screenportion, and the non-display screen area may include a backside of thedisplay apparatus opposite to the display screen portion.

The multi-colored indicator unit may include a plurality of segments,and each segment of the plurality of segments may be capable ofindependently displaying a color, where the multi-colored indicator unitmay further include an optical diffusion and mounting assembly havingthe plurality of segments.

The activity information may include Internet activity, and the at leastone display policy may include an Internet usage control policy relatingto control of the Internet activity. The policy agent may be configuredto apply the Internet usage control policy to the Internet activity anddetermine the at least one command based on results of the Internetusage control policy being applied to the Internet activity.

The Internet usage control policy may relate to a parental controlpolicy. The multi-colored indicator unit may be configured to displayone of a green color for safe Internet browsing, yellow color forcautious Internet browsing, a red color for unsafe Internet browsing,based on the at least one command.

The activity information may include user action information indicatingat least one user action. The activity information may include anapplication request from an application. The activity information mayinclude maintenance upgrade information or a number of errors associatedwith the computing device.

A method for controlling and displaying colors via an indicator on acomputing device, may include receiving, by a policy agent, activityinformation, applying, by the policy agent, at least one display policyto the activity information, determining, by the policy agent, at leastone command based on results of the at least one display policy beingapplied to the activity information, and displaying, by a multi-coloredindicator unit located on a non-display screen area of the computingdevice, at least one of a plurality of colors based on the at least onecommand.

The at least one display policy may include at least one of anenterprise policy, an administrator policy, a user preference, and anapplication setting. The method may further include determining, by thepolicy agent, which display policy to apply based on a hierarchicalorder of a plurality of display policies.

The activity information may include Internet activity, and the at leastone display policy may include an Internet usage control policy relatingto control of the Internet activity. The applying step may apply theInternet usage control policy to the Internet activity and thedetermining step may determine the at least one command based on resultsof the Internet usage control policy being applied to the Internetactivity.

The Internet usage control policy may relate to a parental controlpolicy. The displaying step may display one of a green color for safeInternet browsing, yellow color for cautious Internet browsing, a redcolor for unsafe Internet browsing, based on the at least one command.

The activity information may include user action information indicatingat least one user action. The activity information may include anapplication request from an application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing device for controlling and displaying aplurality of colors on a multi-colored LED indicator unit based on oneor more LED display policies according to an implementation;

FIG. 2 illustrates a hierarchical order of the LED display policies ofFIG. 1 according to an implementation;

FIG. 3 illustrates the multi-colored LED indicator unit of FIG. 1according to an implementation;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the computingdevice of FIG. 1 according to an implementation;

FIG. 5A illustrates the computing device of FIG. 1 as a laptop computeraccording to an implementation;

FIG. 5B illustrates the computing device of FIG. 1 as a desktop computeraccording to an implementation; and

FIG. 6 illustrates the computing device of FIG. 1 as the laptop computeraccording to another implementation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As described herein, a multi-colored light-emitting diode (LED)indicator unit on a computing device, such as a laptop or desktopcomputer, can be controlled. In one implementation, the multi-coloredLED indicator unit may be located on a non-display screen area of thecomputing device. For example, the multi-colored LED indicator unit maybe located on the backside of the laptop computer (e.g., opposite to thedisplay screen portion of the laptop computer) or on the backside of adisplay apparatus of the personal computer (e.g., opposite to thedisplay screen portion of the display apparatus). Alternatively, themulti-colored LED indicator unit may be located on the computerprocessing unit (CPU) of the personal computer. Regardless of thelocation, the multi-colored LED indicator unit may include at least onesegment, where each segment is capable of displaying a plurality ofcolors such as green, yellow, and red, among others, for example. Assuch, the multi-colored LED indicator unit may simultaneously displaymultiple colors.

Also, according to the implementations, the multi-colored LED indicatorunit may be configured to display multiple colors according to a numberof different aspects apart from whether the computing device ischarging, on, or asleep. For example, the implementations provide anindependent controller that controls the multi-colored indicator unit,which may illuminate based on the application of at least one displaypolicy to activity information including Internet activity (e.g.green=safe web browsing, yellow=cautious web browsing, red=unsafe webbrowsing, etc.), user action information, application requests, serviceinformation, or, generally, any type of activity associated with thecomputing device or a user operating the computing device. Also, theuser can set a preferred color scheme depending on the type of action.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing device 106 for controlling and displayingat least one of plurality of colors on a multi-colored LED indicatorunit 108 based on one or more LED display policies 116 according to animplementation. The computing device 106 may be virtually any type ofcomputing device such as a laptop or desktop computer, a netbook, or atablet computer, for example. An implementation of the computing device106 as a laptop computer, and an implementation of the computing device106 as a desktop computer are further illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B.However, the features and functionalities of the implementationsdiscussed herein with respect to the laptop and desktop computers can beeasily extended to other types of computing devices.

The computing device 106 may include at least one processor 107 and anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium 109. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium 109 may include executableinstructions, that when executed, cause the at least one processor 107to implement functionalities of applications 112, the multi-colored LEDindicator unit 108, a policy agent 114, and the LED display polices 116in conjunction with an operating system associated with the computingdevice 106. The operating system may include an operating system such asthe Windows operating system, Mac OS, or Linux, and may include mobileplatforms such as Android, Symbian, or iPhone OS, to name a fewexamples. In other examples, the operating system may include abrowser-based operating system, such as the Chrome OS. Consequently, theapplications 112 may include virtually any application which may run onany underlying operating system or platform. Examples of suchapplications are well-known and too numerous to mention in any detail,but generally include document processing applications, gamingapplications, email applications, image editing or presentationsoftware, a web browser, and/or virtually any type of applicationcapable of operating on an operating system.

As shown in FIG. 1, the computing device 106 may be capable of beingconnected to the Internet 102 or a private network 104 which is thenconnected to the Internet 102. The private network 104 may represent acorporate or other intranet, and/or a smaller-scale, local or personalnetwork, any of which may be implemented using standard networktechnology.

The policy agent 114 may be configured to receive activity information,apply at least one LED display policy among a plurality of LED displaypolicies 116, and determine at least one command based on the results ofthe at least one LED display policy being applied to the activityinformation. The determined command(s) are provided to the multi-coloredLED indictor unit 108 for displaying the color scheme. For instance, themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108 may include the hardware associatedwith simultaneously displaying multiple colors on the computing device106 based on one or more commands from the policy agent 114, which isfurther explained with reference to FIG. 3.

In one implementation, the activity information may include networkactivity information associated with the private network 104 and/or theInternet 102. For example, the network activity information may includewhich information the user has accessed within the private network 104and/or the Internet 102 such as files, documents, and/or websites, forexample, which may include the Internet browsing activities of the user.In this example, the policy agent 114 may receive the network activityinformation from the private network 104 and/or the Internet 102, andapply at least one LED display policy to the network activityinformation. The LED display policy may define one or more conditionsassociated with the network activity information in order to determineone or more commands to be provided to the multi-colored LED indicatorunit 108 for displaying the plurality of colors on the multiple-coloredLED indicator unit 108. For example, the LED display policy may requiredisplay of a green color if the network information indicates that theuser has visited/or is visiting safe Internet sites, a yellow color ifthe network information indicates that the user has visited/or isvisiting semi-safe Internet sites, and a red color if the networkinformation indicates that the user has visited/or is visiting unsafeInternet sites.

In one example, the terms “safe”, “semi-safe” and “unsafe” may refer todifferent levels of Internet activity, which may depend on the contextfor which the computing device 106 is utilized. For instance, in termsof utilizing the computing device 106 within a work place environment,the various levels of Internet activity (e.g., safe, semi-safe, andunsafe) may relate to the security of the Internet site and/or therelevancy of the Internet site to the user's work. In terms of utilizingthe computing device 106 within a home environment, the various levelsof Internet activity may relate to the appropriateness of the Internetsite such as a parental control policy, as further discussed below.Therefore, the policy agent 114 may receive the network informationindicating which websites the user is viewing, and apply the LED displaypolicy accordingly. Based on the application of the LED display policyto the network information, the policy agent 114 may determine theappropriate command(s) to be provided to the multi-colored LED indicatorunit 108.

Also, the LED display policy may relate to a parental control policy inorder to monitor their children's Internet activity. In oneimplementation, the policy agent 114 may operate in conjunction withexisting network filtering mechanisms already associated with theoperating system and/or web browsers or search engines. For example,these existing network filtering mechanisms may provide parentalcontrols, and filter (or block) the Internet activity of the user whenthe visited web page(s) meet a condition specified by the parentalfilter. In this example, the policy agent 114 may be notified when thefiltering mechanism is activated causing the policy agent 114 to applythe parental control policy to the type of Internet activity classifiedby the network filtering mechanism. For instance, for cases of unsafeInternet activity, the parental control policy may require the displayof a red color. For cases of safe Internet activity, the parentalcontrol policy may require the display of a green color, and for casesof semi-safe Internet activity, the parental control policy may requirethe display of a yellow color. However, the implementations encompassany kind of color for the color scheme of the parental control policy,as well as other types of policies.

In another implementation, the activity information may include useraction information indicating at least one user action. For example, thepolicy agent 114 may be configured to receive user action informationthat represents an action by the user on the computing device 106. Theuser action information may include virtually any type of actionsperformed by the user such as launching a certain type of application112, and operating the application 112/computing device 106 in aspecified manner, for example. In this respect, the user may definevirtually any type of LED display policy for controlling the colordisplay of the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108. In one example, theuser may define an LED display policy such requiring that the color redis displayed when the user launches an application 112 relating to work.In this example, the policy agent 114 may monitor and/or receive avariety of different user actions, and apply the user-defined LEDdisplay policy accordingly. When the user action information meets acondition specified by the LED display policy, the policy agent 114 maygenerate the appropriate command(s) to be provided to the multi-coloredLED indicator unit 108 for controlling the display of color indicators.

In another example, the LED display policy may represent an enterprisepolicy to be applied to users, who are authorized to operate a company'scomputers. For example, enterprise users may set a company wide standardindicator scheme to allow users to have outward facing indicators (e.g.,the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 may be positioned on thebackside of the computing device 106) such as chat status, e.g.,red=busy, yellow=please be brief, and green=come and chat. In thisexample, the user may set his/her chat status via a chat statusinterface. Then, the policy agent 114 may receive the selected chatstatus and determine the appropriate command(s) for controlling themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108 based on the enterprise's LEDdisplay policy.

In another example, the enterprise LED display policy may relate to thenumber of bugs open against the user, e.g., red=one or more criticalbugs, yellow=one or more non-critical bugs, green=no bugs. Also, theenterprise LED policy may relate to the status of a system update, e.g.,red=the system update is taking place, and green=the system update iscomplete. As such, the activity information may relate to maintenanceupgrade information or a number of errors associated with the computingdevice 106. Therefore, the policy agent 114 may receive the maintenanceupgrade information or the number of errors associated with thecomputing device 106 from the computing device 106 or another device,and apply the enterprise LED policy to determine the appropriatecommand(s) for controlling the multi-colored LED indictor unit 108.

Furthermore, the policy agent 114 may receive one or more applicationrequests from an application 112 to display particular colors of the LEDindicator unit 108 in accordance with certain functionality of theapplication 112. In one example, the application 112 may include a gamesuch as Battleship (which is a naval strategy guessing game), and theapplication request may be related to a round of play of the game, e.g.,the sinking of a ship, or a miss. Then, depending on the LED displaypolicy (which may include one or more application settings) themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108 may be configured to display aflashing (or flickering) red color when the policy agent 114 receivesthe ship sinking request or a flashing (or flickering) blue color whenthe policy agent 114 receives the miss request. As such, the policyagent 114 may be configured to monitor the application requests from theapplication 112, and to apply the appropriate application settings ofthe LED display policy relating the application 112 in order todetermine the command(s) for the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108.The control of the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 may provide anenhanced user experience for applications 112 by providing visualeffects for a number of different applications including gamingapplication or virtually any type of application 112.

FIG. 2 illustrates a hierarchical order of the LED display policies 116according to an implementation. As shown in FIG. 2, the LED displaypolicies 116 may be stored in a database, and the policy agent 114 maybe configured to communicate with the database in order to determine theappropriate LED display policy to be applied. For example, the displayof the color scheme may be configured according to a number of differentLED display policies 116, which may conflict with one another if theyare activated at the same time. As such, the implementations provide ahierarchical order of the LED display policies 116, and the policy agent114 may determine which LED display policy 116 to apply by consultingthe hierarchical order.

According to one implementation, the policy agent 114 may apply the LEDdisplay policies 116 in the following order: enterprise policies 118,administrator policies 120, user preferences 122, and applicationsettings 124. For example, if the policy agent 114 is configured tocontrol the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 based on theapplication settings 124 (e.g., if the user is playing the battleshipapplication) and the policy agent 114 is also configured to apply anenterprise policy 118 (e.g., the chat status example explained above),the policy agent 114 may be configured to apply the enterprise policy118 instead of the application setting 124 because the enterprise policy118 is ordered higher than the application setting 124.

The enterprise policies 118 may include any type of policy that isinstituted by a company for users of the company's resources, e.g., thecomputing devices 106. As such, the enterprise policies 118 may includevirtually any type of policy relating to a company wide standardindicator scheme. In one example, as explained above, the enterprisepolicies 118 may include the control of Internet usage by enterpriseusers (e.g., red=unsafe Internet browsing, yellow=cautious Internetbrowsing, and green=safe Internet browsing), chat status (e.g.,red=busy, yellow=please be brief, and green=come and chat), and/or thenumber of bugs open against the user (e.g., red=one or more criticalbugs, yellow=one or more non-critical bugs, green=no bugs). It is notedthat these types of enterprise policies 118 are merely specificexamples, where the implementations encompass any type of company widestandard indicator scheme for any type of behavior.

The administrative policies 120 may include any type of policy typicallyinstituted by administrators of computing systems. For example, theadministrative policies 120 may include one or more LED display policiesthat set the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 to notify when asystem update was complete, or another types of administrative policies120. As such, the administrative policies 120 may include virtually anytype of policy relating to policies handled by administrators ofcomputing systems.

The user preferences 122 may include any type of user-defined LEDdisplay policy. For example, according to the implementations, a user ofthe computing device 106 may define an LED display policy based oncertain types of user actions when operating the computing device 106.For example, the user may configure the multi-colored LED indicator unit108 to display green, red, or yellow (or any other type of color) forvirtually any type of computer-related user action by defining theconditions in the user preferences 122.

The application settings 124 may include any type of LED display policyrelating to the applications 112. For example, the application 112 mayprovide one or more settings that trigger the operation of themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108 (e.g., the conditions are specifiedin the application itself). Alternatively, the user may define theapplication settings 124 for an application 112 that trigger theoperation of the multi-colored LED indicator 108 (e.g., the user setsthe application settings 124 via an application setting interface). Asindicated above, the application 112 may include a game such asBattleship, and the application request may be related to a hit, e.g.,the sinking of a ship, or a miss. Then, the multi-colored LED indicatorunit 108 may be configured to display a flashing (or flickering) redcolor when the policy agent 114 receives the ship sinking request or aflashing (or flickering) blue color when the policy agent 114 receivesthe miss request. As such, the policy agent 114 may be configured tomonitor the application requests from the application 112, and apply theappropriate LED display policy relating the application 112 in order todetermine the command(s) for the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108.

Therefore, according to the implementations, the policy agent 114 may beconfigured to determine which LED display policy 116 to apply based onthe hierarchical order of the LED display policies 116, which mayinclude the enterprise policies 118, the administrator policies 120, theuser preferences 122, and/or the application settings 124, for example.Not only the implementations encompass the specific order of FIG. 2, theimplementations encompass any type of hierarchical ordering of the LEDdisplay policies 116. For instance, the user may wish to apply theapplication settings 124 over the user preferences 122 in the case thatthe application settings 124 are more important to the user than theuser preferences 122. Also, it is noted that the LED display policies116 may include other types of LED display policies that are notspecifically characterized into a certain group. For example, besidesthe four types of LED display policies shown in FIG. 2, the LED displaypolicies may include other groups of LED display policies 116. Also, thehierarchical order may include any subset of the LED display policiesshown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 illustrates the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 of FIG. 1according to an implementation. As shown in FIG. 3, the policy agent 114operates in conjunction with the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 inorder to carry out the LED display policies of FIG. 2. For instance, themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108 may receive one or more commandsrelated to the display of one or more colors of the multi-coloredindicator, and control the illumination of colors. The commands may bein a format or syntax that is recognizable by a light-emitting diode fordisplaying the appropriate color indicated by the LED display policy.

According to an implementation, the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108may include a controller 130, and an optical diffusion and mountingassembly 126 having a plurality of segments. The controller 130 may bean independently-provided controller that is different from the internalcontrollers associated with controlling single color LEDs onconventional computing devices. The controller 130 may receive thecommand(s) from the policy agent 114, and provide the LED-levelinstructions to the optical diffusion and mounting assembly 126 fordisplaying the appropriate colors. The LED-level instructions mayprovide information indicating the appropriate emission pattern(s) forthe desired color and illumination.

The plurality of segments may include four independent LED segments suchas segment 0, segment 1, segment 2, and segment 3, where each segment iscapable of independently displaying a color. As such, the plurality ofsegments may provide the capability of displaying multiple colors at thesame time. In one example, the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 mayutilize a Red Green Blue (RGB) color scheme, which permits theillumination of a range of different colors by blending amounts of red,green, and/or blue. According to the implementations, each segment isassociated with the RGB color scheme, and at least one of the segments(or all of them) may be provided with the appropriate emission(s) forthe desired color and illumination as dictated by the LED displaypolicy. Also, the optical diffusion and mounting assembly 126 mayinclude other components related to each segment such as thecorresponding RGB diodes and related mounting hardware. Further,although four segments are illustrated in FIG. 3, the implementationsencompass any number of segments in the optical diffusion and mountingassembly 126.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating example operations 402-408 of thecomputing device 106 of FIG. 1 according to an implementation. Althoughthe flowchart of FIG. 4 illustrates the operations 402-408 in sequentialorder, it will be appreciated that this is merely an example, and thatadditional or alternative operations may be included. Further,operations of FIG. 4 and related operations may be executed in adifferent order than that shown, or in a parallel or overlappingfashion.

Activity information may be received (402), at least one display policymay be applied to the activity information (404), and at least onecommand may be determined based on results of the at least one displaypolicy being applied to the activity information (406). For example, thepolicy agent 114 may be configured to receive activity information,apply at least one LED display policy among a plurality of LED displaypolicies 116, and determine at least one command based on the results ofthe at least one LED display policy being applied to the activityinformation. The determined command(s) are provided to the multi-coloredLED indictor unit 108 for displaying the color scheme.

In one implementation, the activity information may include networkactivity information associated with the private network 104 and/or theInternet 102. In this example, the policy agent 114 may receive thenetwork activity information from the private network 104 and/or theInternet 102, and apply at least one LED display policy to the networkactivity information. In particular, the policy agent 114 may receivethe network information indicating which websites the user is viewing,and apply the LED display policy accordingly. Based on the applicationof the LED display policy to the network information, the policy agent114 may determine the appropriate command(s) to be provided to themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108. Also, the LED display policy mayrelate to a parental control policy. In one implementation, the policyagent 114 may operate in conjunction with existing network filteringmechanisms already associated with the operating system and/or webbrowsers or search engines. In this example, the policy agent 114 may benotified when the filtering mechanism is activated causing the policyagent 114 to apply the parental control policy to the type of Internetactivity classified by the network filtering mechanism.

In another implementation, the activity information may include useraction information indicating at least one user action. For example, thepolicy agent 114 may be configured to receive user action informationthat represents an action by the user on the computing device 106. Whenthe user action information meets a condition specified by the LEDdisplay policy, the policy agent 114 may generate the appropriatecommand(s) to be provided to the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108for controlling the display of color indicators.

In another implementation, the LED display policy may represent anenterprise policy to be applied to users, who are authorized to operatea company's computers. For example, enterprise users may set a companywide standard indicator scheme such as chat status, e.g., red=busy,yellow=please be brief, and green=come and chat. The policy agent 114may receive the selected chat status and determine the appropriatecommand(s) for controlling the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108based on the enterprise's LED display policy. In another example, theenterprise LED display policy may relate to the number of bugs openagainst the user, e.g., red=one or more critical bugs, yellow=one ormore non-critical bugs, green=no bugs. Also, the enterprise LED policymay relate to the status of a system update, e.g., red=the system updateis taking place, and green=the system update is complete. As such, theactivity information may relate to maintenance upgrade information or anumber of errors associated with the computing device 106. Therefore,the policy agent 114 may receive the maintenance upgrade information orthe number of errors associated with the computing device 106 from thecomputing device 106 or another device, and apply the enterprise LEDpolicy to determine the appropriate command(s) for controlling themulti-colored LED indictor unit 108.

Furthermore, the policy agent 114 may receive one or more applicationrequests from an application 112. As such, the policy agent 114 may beconfigured to monitor the application requests from the application 112,and apply the appropriate application settings of the LED display policyrelating the application 112 in order to determine the command(s) forthe multi-colored LED indicator unit 108.

At least one of a plurality of colors may be displayed based on the atleast one command (408) via the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108,which may be located on a non-display screen area of the computingdevice 106. For example, the policy agent 114 may operate in conjunctionwith the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 in order to carry out theLED display policies of FIG. 2. For instance, the multi-colored LEDindicator unit 108 may receive one or more commands related to thedisplay of colors of the multi-colored indicator, and control theillumination of colors. The commands may be in a format or syntax thatis recognizable by a light-emitting diode for displaying the appropriatecolor indicated by the LED display policy. The location of themulti-colored LED indicator 108 is further explained with reference toFIGS. 5 and 6.

According to an implementation, the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108may include a controller 130, and an optical diffusion and mountingassembly 126 having a plurality of segments, where each segment of theplurality of segments is capable of independent displaying a color. Thecontroller 130 may receive the command(s) from the policy agent 114, andprovide the LED-level instructions to the optical diffusion and mountingassembly 126 for displaying the appropriate colors. The LED-levelinstructions may provide information indicating the appropriate emissionpattern(s) for the desired color and illumination.

The plurality of segments may include four independent LED segments suchas segment 0, segment 1, segment 2, and segment 3, where each segment iscapable of independently displaying a color. As such, the plurality ofsegments may provide the capability of displaying multiple colors at thesame time. In one example, the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 mayutilize a Red Green Blue (RGB) color scheme, which permits theillumination of a range of different colors by blending amounts of red,green, and/or blue. According to the implementations, each segment isassociated with the RGB color scheme, and at least one of the segments(or all of them) may be provided with the appropriate emission(s) forthe desired color and illumination as dictated by the LED displaypolicy.

FIG. 5A illustrates the computing device 106 of FIG. 1 as a laptopcomputer according to an implementation. Referring to FIG. 5A, thelaptop computer includes the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108, wherethe multi-colored LED indicator unit 108 is located on a non-displayscreen area of the laptop computer, where the non-display screen areaincludes a backside of the laptop computer opposite to the displayscreen portion. For example, the multi-colored LED indicator unit 108may be located on the upper backside of the laptop computer, and thedisplay of one or more colors may be visible from the location of themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108. However, the implementationsencompass any location on the laptop computer for the placement of themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108. FIG. 5B illustrates the computingdevice 106 of FIG. 1 as a desktop computer according to animplementation. Referring to FIG. 5B, the desktop computer may have adisplay apparatus 106 a providing a display screen and a computerprocessing unit (CPU) 106 b. According to one implementation, themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108 may be located on the backside orthe front-side of the display apparatus 106 a. Alternatively, themulti-colored LED indicator unit 108 may be located on the CPU 106 b.

FIG. 6 illustrates the computing device 106 of FIG. 1 according toanother implementation. For example, FIG. 6 illustrates the computingdevice 106 as the laptop computer, and the laptop computer is in aclosed state (e.g., where the display screen portion and the keyboardportion are folded together). As shown in FIG. 6, the multi-colored LEDindicator unit 108 is located on the backside towards the outer edge ofthe laptop computer. Again, the locations of the multi-colored LEDindicator unit 108, as shown in FIGS. 5-6, are merely examples, wherethe implementations encompass any location of the multi-colored LEDindicator unit 108 on the computing device 106.

It will be appreciated that the above implementations that have beendescribed in particular detail are merely example or possibleimplementations, and that there are many other combinations, additions,or alternatives that may be included.

Also, the particular naming of the components, capitalization of terms,the attributes, data structures, or any other programming or structuralaspect is not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms thatimplement the invention or its features may have different names,formats, or protocols. Further, the system may be implemented via acombination of hardware and software, as described, or entirely inhardware elements. Also, the particular division of functionalitybetween the various system components described herein is merelyexemplary, and not mandatory; functions performed by a single systemcomponent may instead be performed by multiple components, and functionsperformed by multiple components may instead performed by a singlecomponent.

Some portions of above description present features in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information.These algorithmic descriptions and representations may be used by thoseskilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey thesubstance of their work to others skilled in the art. These operations,while described functionally or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs. Furthermore, it has also provenconvenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations asmodules or by functional names, without loss of generality.

Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the abovediscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or“calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or “providing” or thelike, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similarelectronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem memories or registers or other such information storage,transmission or display devices.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing device, comprising: a display unithaving a front portion and a back portion, the front portion including adisplay screen, the back portion being opposite to the front portion; apolicy agent configured to receive activity information, apply at leastone display policy to the activity information, and determine at leastone command based on results of the at least one display policy beingapplied to the activity information; and a multi-colored indicator unit,located on the back portion of the display unit, configured to displayat least one of a plurality of colors to a non-user of the computingdevice based on the at least one command, wherein the multi-coloredindicator unit includes a plurality of independent light emitting diode(LED) segments including a first LED segment and a second LED segment,wherein each of the first LED segment and the second LED segment iscapable of independently displaying Red, Green, and Blue, the first LEDsegment configured to display a color at a same time as the second LEDsegment displays a color.
 2. The computing device of claim 1, whereinthe at least one display policy includes at least one of an enterprisepolicy, an administrator policy, a user preference, and an applicationsetting.
 3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the policy agent isfurther configured to determine which display policy to apply based on ahierarchical order of a plurality of display policies.
 4. The computingdevice of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a laptop computer. 5.The computing device of claim 1, wherein the computing device is adesktop computer having the display unit connected to a computerprocessing unit.
 6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein themulti-colored indicator unit further includes an optical diffusion andmounting assembly having the plurality of LED segments.
 7. The computingdevice of claim 1, wherein the activity information includes Internetactivity, and the at least one display policy includes an Internet usagecontrol policy relating to control of the Internet activity, wherein thepolicy agent is configured to apply the Internet usage control policy tothe Internet activity and determine the at least one command based onresults of the Internet usage control policy being applied to theInternet activity.
 8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the atleast one display policy includes a parental control policy relating toInternet browsing activities of the user of the computing device.
 9. Thecomputing device of claim 8, wherein the policy agent is configured tooperate in conjunction with an existing network filtering mechanismassociated with an operating system or web browser of the computingdevice such that the policy agent is notified when the existing networkfiltering mechanism is activated causing the policy agent to apply theparental control policy to a type of Internet activity classified by theexisting network filtering mechanism.
 10. The computing device of claim1, wherein the activity information includes user action informationindicating at least one user action.
 11. The computing device of claim1, wherein the activity information includes an application request froman application executing on the computing device.
 12. The computingdevice of claim 1, wherein the activity information includes maintenanceupgrade information or a number of errors associated with the computingdevice.
 13. A method for controlling and displaying colors via anindicator on a computing device, comprising: receiving, by a policyagent of the computing device, activity information; applying, by thepolicy agent, at least one display policy to the activity information;determining, by the policy agent, at least one command based on resultsof the at least one display policy being applied to the activityinformation; and displaying, by a multi-colored indicator unit locatedon a back-side of a display unit opposite to a display screen of thecomputing device, at least one of a plurality of colors to a non-user ofthe computing device based on the at least one command, wherein themulti-colored indicator unit includes a plurality of independent lightemitting diode (LED) segments including a first LED segment and a secondLED segment, wherein each of the first LED segment and the second LEDsegment is capable of independently displaying Red, Green, and Blue, thefirst LED segment configured to display a color at a same time as thesecond LED segment displays a color.
 14. The method of claim 13, whereinthe at least one display policy includes a plurality of display policiesincluding an enterprise policy, an administrator policy, a userpreference policy, and an application policy.
 15. The method of claim14, further comprising: determining, by the policy agent, which displaypolicy to apply based on a hierarchical order of the plurality ofdisplay policies, wherein, when the enterprise policy and theapplication policy are both relevant to a current display of themulti-colored indicator unit, selecting the enterprise policy over theapplication policy.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein the activityinformation includes Internet activity, and the at least one displaypolicy includes an Internet usage control policy relating to control ofthe Internet activity.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein the pluralityof independent LED segments further includes a third LED segment and afourth LED segment.